1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a refrigerator having an indicating device to guide setting of a desired storage condition for food to be stored in accordance with the kind and state of the food.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, refrigerators include a storage chamber and a cooling device to supply cold air to the storage chamber, to store food in the storage chamber in a fresh state. In such a refrigerator, the storage chamber thereof is maintained at a certain storage temperature, to keep food therein in a fresh state.
On the other hand, there is a refrigerator, the storage temperature of which is varied in accordance with the state of food, for example, the salinity or acidity of the food, in order to store the food in a more fresh state for a prolonged period of time. Examples of such a refrigerator are disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-0018642, Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-0029513 and Korean Registered Patent Publication No. 10-0878822.
In the refrigerators disclosed in the above publications, a measurement terminal is attached to a container to store food, in order to measure the state of the food. However, the measurement terminal is kept in continuous contact with the food.
Furthermore, data about the food state measured through the measurement terminal or data about the storage temperature determined based on the state data is not provided to the user. For this reason, the user may doubt whether the storage temperature is reliable.